A form of music that developed in the mid 1980's from thrash. Possessed recorded a song entitled "Death Metal" in 1984, which would appear on their debut album Seven Churches in 1985. Other bands such as Aggression, Death, Necrophagia, Nun Slaughter, Slaughter Lord and even Slayer contributed to the movement. What defined death metal was the fact that it was basically an exaggerated form of thrash--everything from the vocals (which transformed into a mix of growling, grunting and rasping) to the drumming was made harsher and heavier than before. The music itself became somewhat anti-rhythmic, and in some cases experimental (as seen with Darkthrone's Goatlord album, or the modern technicality of Necrophagist). The first bands to really modernize the movement included Autopsy, Cannibal Corpse, the virtually unkown Necrovore, Morbid Angel, Obituary, and Ripping Corpse, among others. Death metal could range from the blood and gore horror imagery of Cannibal Corpse, to the satanic overtones of Deicide, to the political statements carried by Dying Fetus. Some criticize death metal as they feel the musicians do nothing but randomly band their instruments. Nothing could be further from the truth--listen to Morbid Angel's album Covenant, for instance, or Cannibal Corpse's Gore Obsessed, to get a better perspective on the scene.

Older Sepultura is a mix of death metal and thrash metal, commonly referred to as death thrash.

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Originally a sub-genre of thrash metal pioneered by Possessed but made better by other bandDeath and Morbid Angel. The genre involves highly distorted, fast-paced guitars, blast beating drums and vocals that are unintelligible or make lyrics hard to understand.

Today there are several sub-genres of death metal. Technical death metal focuses on having complex leads and song structures. Brutal death metal is all about pushing death metal past the boundaries in speed and aggression. Melodic death metal has higher pitch vocals and melodic guitars. Deathgrind fuses the complexity of death metal with the speed and aggression of grindcore. Death/doom fuses the double bass drumming and growling vocals of death metal and the slow tempo and pessimistic mood of doom metal. And deathcore mixes the gore of death metal with the core of metalcore to get a genre even more gay and worse than metalcore.

Death metal is the most awesome genre ever. Too bad that everyone else besides 2 other people are scenes who listen to metal/deathcore and would probably melt under the intensity of death metal. I say "GORE NOT CORE" to them.

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Death Metal is a genre of metal composed of blastbeats, crunchy and technical guitar riffs, intricate bass lines, and usually gutteral vocal styles. Death metal uses these all and is uncomprehendable to all people without a musical background. The complexity overloads most peoples minds, they can only settle for simple things like "tappin that ass!!" Death metal is one of the most unapriciated forms of metal because of its complexity and its technicality. This is also the metal that scares preps into thinking metalheads are goths.

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A brutal sub-genre of heavy metal. Misplaced anger is often put towards this genre by ignorant people who think jazz is really avant-garde.

Death metal usually includes but is not limited to fast riffage, growling vocals, and blast beats. Modern death metal has some grindcore influence. Yes, it does take talent to vocalize like that. Record yourself "growling" and let's see how professinal you sound.

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Death metal is a subgenre of heavy metal generally involving low tuned guitars played with tremolo picking and many solos, double kick or blast beat drumming techniques, minor keys or atonality, and rapid time signature changes, chromatic chord progressions, and intricate song-writing. Death metal is the most underrated and underappreciated genre in music, with many of the most famous bands full of world class musicians that taught at the most prestigious music schools in the world. The best aspects of every genre of music (new wave of British heavy metal, classical musical, thrash metal, grindcore, black metal and jazz) can be found in death metal albums articulated in a more intelligent and enjoyable manner than in the aforementioned genres. Examples are Atheist's take on jazz, Arghoslent's NWOBHM riffs, Necrophagist's Beethoven-influenced riffs, and Appalling Spawn's grindcore elements. Death metal produces the most thought-provoking and intelligent lyrics of any genre as referenced below.

Guy 1: Why do you thinkdeath metal appeals almost exclusively to very intelligent people?
Guy 2: As illuminated in the documentary The Boy With the Incredible Brain, many very high IQ people think in terms of shapes and music that forms shapes. It is not hard to understand why the ebb and flow of death metal riffs appeal almost exclusively to very intelligent people who sense and recognize the shape and contours of the very intricate and highly educated music that is death metal.

Guy 1: What are some death metal songs which shed light not only on natural aspects of the human condition, but more generally on important societal problems directly connected to people's thinking?
Guy 2: Enthralled in Essence (Atheist), Slaughter of Innocence, Demise of the Clone (Suffocation), Mirrors of Reason (Monstrosity), Omnipresent Perception (Beyond Creation), Dethrone the Hypocrites (Anata), Closeminded Failure (Solstice), The Truth About Lies (Krabathor), Lack of Comprehension (Death), Scavenger of Human Sorrow (Death), The Sadistic Motives Behind Bereavement Letters (Arsis) and Shallow Disbelief (Experiment Fear) all have very intelligent messages meeting your requirements.

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Actually, Death Metal isn't simply about satan/death/killing ect. Grindcore/death metal masters NAPALM DEATH have had a long history of political statments in thier music. The afformentioned Satan enlightens and brings forth religious ideas and concepts. In reality, Death Metal can be inteligent. However, bands like Obituary and Cannibal Corpse stay true to the no-brains-kill-em-all style, (goodfun) but try not to tar all music of one genre with the same brush.